"Factors being equal the simplest explanation tends to be the correct one" (Ockam's razor)

Recent events, from the financial crisis to the student riots, seem to paint a scenario in which the rules disappear behind the complexity, leaving each of us with a feeling of uncertainty and helplessness in the face of the loss of stable reference points. In today's reality, it is as if civilized society is shouting at us that one plus one does not equal two, that saving 100 euros does not mean owning them and that rudeness should not be punished. And so, even at school, it is more traumatic to get one more five than an "insufficient". And all in the name of the complexity and uniqueness of every person and every situation. Are we really sure that this is the case?

We have learned from physics that reality is not linear and that Newtonian mechanics, according to which the world consists of combinations of atoms, is not sufficient to explain reality itself. From this exact science came the quantum revolution, i.e. the complex vision of reality with its chaos theory, which was able to break many of the dogmas that have accompanied centuries of human thought. And slowly they penetrated other sciences to flood medicine and the study of the brain. So everything seems not to be explainable by simple rules of cause and effect. Overwhelmed by the quantum wave, we have been drawn into a subjective view of every aspect of life that strongly influences even the very important applications of chaos theory in real life. Just think of the weather, which has achieved a level of precision through the application of scientific complexity that was unthinkable just a few decades ago. Now we even apply complex dynamic systems to the development of washing machines. Complexity is also becoming a buzzword in medicine, where the analysis of ECG recordings using non-linear techniques has allowed us to obtain much more comprehensive information about the functioning of the heart, and it justifies the direction of psychology and psychiatry, where the human being, in its unique and irreducible complexity, is seen as irreducible to general rules. Slowly, everything that was simple has become "superficial" and the attempt to simplify reality a "crude" reductionism.

In all this amazement, we have not taken into account what physics has said: the quanta and complexity are fine, but in everyday life, "simple" Newtonian mechanics is able to explain reality in a reliable and useful way. 

So we should reflect on the fact that the complex view has not replaced simple logic, but it has become like a magnifying glass that can better grasp reality in situations that go beyond "normal" life. Therefore, while it is true that each of us is unique, it is equally true that we humans normally all have two legs, two arms and one head. It is true that a tree has a different meaning for each of us, but it remains true that a tree is always a tree. In the name of quatum, we abandon Aristotelian logical thinking and the scientific method of reasoning to enter the unstable world of subjectivity. In doing so, we risk losing the simple rules that bind us together and allow us to communicate with each other while being aware of the complexity of human relationships. The search for common rules does not come from the attempt to reduce complexity into small boxes that do not represent complexity itself, but from the awareness that simple linear thinking in daily life allows us to create order and harmony. 

We have learned from physics that reality is much more complex than what we observe, but we cannot ignore that complexity includes simplicity and should not be used to justify even the confusion in the choice of values. We must therefore learn another great lesson of physics, which suggests to us that in daily life, simple thought, which finds its roots in Aristotelian logic, can give us those reference points and those rules capable of rebuilding the wonderful world of values and principles that guided behavior and society at the time of our grandparents, when quanta were still a dream ...